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The temperature plummets. Meteorologists warn of frostbitten fingers and toes. A man enters a
shoe store and steals ...

Flip-flops?

Columbus police say that happened at a Morse Road shoe store early last week, just as the
temperature started another nose dive to its lowest point of the winter at 11 below zero.

Police said the thief browsed some footwear, snatched the pair of $12.99 flip-flops and escaped
into the polar landscape, perhaps headed to some tropical-island getaway.

A thief can dream, can’t he?

• • •

Lawyers can be a bit long-winded when they get in front of a judge.

That’s why Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Holbrook hopes those who practice in
his courtroom get the message when they see the hourglass that now sits near his bench.

The old-fashioned timer stands 15 inches tall and was a Christmas gift from Holbrook’s bailiff,
David Petikas.

Though meant to be decorative, the hourglass could serve as inspiration for attorneys to get to
the point in closing arguments, Holbrook said.

“If you can’t get it done in an hour,” the judge said, “you’re not going to get it done.”

• • •

Court documents are notoriously wordy, difficult to decipher and filled with language that only
lawyers and judges seem to understand.

Usually the docket, essentially a case timeline and summary, is easier to figure out. It might
list the date of a hearing; a brief explanation of what happened, such as a sentencing or plea
deal; or the type of motion filed by the defendant or plaintiff.

But a recent docket notation in federal court was so convoluted that even some lawyers might
have had to read it twice.

How is it that a police report filed by a Franklinton resident last week reminded the Justice
Insider of an English supergroup from the 1970s?

The woman reported on Jan. 27 that a pile of her possessions had been stolen from her home the
day before. Among the missing items were a laptop, an iPad, jewelry, cash and oxycodone. She knew
what happened to it all, too.

“Reporting person states that she had bad company over,” a police officer wrote.

For those who don’t remember the eponymous song on the eponymous debut album by the hard-rocking
group Bad Company, the Insider has taken the liberty of quoting a few random lines. Penned 40 years
ago by band members Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke, the lyrics seem applicable:

Tell me that you are not a thief ...

Oh, somebody double-crossed me ...

And I say it’s bad company ...

Dispatch Reporters Kathy Lynn Gray and John Futty contributed to this report.